Handcut Dovetails Versus Heirloom Tomatoes

Which would you have chosen–a talk about Arts and Crafts furniture followed by a live demonstration of how to cut dovetail joints by hand, or an heirloom tomato tasting at the Farmers’ Market?

The people who run the T.C. Steele State Historic Site are as grateful as I to all who forsook yesterday’s plein air offering of the 2011 tomato harvest to attend, instead, a talk on Arts & Crafts furniture. (And there were a lot of you!)

What an honor, to have a temporary workbench set up next to Theodore Clement Steele’s art supply cabinet in the dream studio he was finally able to commission when he was almost 70, in 1916.

I’m especially thankful to Jim Krause–composer, musician, sailor, athlete, indefatiguable community member, and friend, who photographed the occasion and provided the following images. And also to Mark Longacre, my partner, and his 13-year-old son, Jonas, who handled the door prize tickets and drawing with aplomb.